Maria Joseph, villager in Sabola, T/A Sabola in Namphungo community said the bridge was damaged last year when it had cracks but it was finished this year by the heavy rains which fall in January.
“We are having a lot of problems in this area due to this bridge, for example it is very difficult to take patients to the hospital during day or night even the ambulance itself cannot go to the other side of the road to take patients because the bridge is damaged,” she said
Sabola added that sometimes expectant mothers deliver on their way to the hospital because they use a long route to reach Namphungo health Centre for help.
“I am very grateful to the government through our Member of Parliament (MP) here in Namphungo for this development of the bridge, it will help us people in the community a lot because will be going back to Namphungo trading centre to sell our products and also going to the hospital will not be an issue as it has been for the past few months”, she explains
People in the community have difficulties to cross the bridge to the other road where the hospital is located to get treatment and to sell their products since most people in the area are farmers who depend on their sells to survive.
Another villager Justine Mwachande said the destruction of the bridge has left people in the community in great poverty with reasons that they are not selling their farm products and School going children stopped going to school because they fail to cross the bridge to the other side when it is full with water.
“We are not selling our products as we used to because the market is on the other part of the bridge and our children stopped going to school when the bridge got damaged”, Mwachande said
Speaking on the matter, Gift Manyenje, Supervisor of Mchinji Boys Construction said the development fund is not from Road Authority but from Mulanje District Conceal (DC) which will help people in the community to cross to the other part of the road when it is finished to get treatment from the nearby health Centre and improve education challenges in the community.
“We started the work in January but because of the heavy rains that fall especially cyclone Anna and Gombe disturbed our work and we stopped working because we were waiting for water to drain, as you can see we have just started the work and we believe by the end of next month will come to the end of our work”, he said
The bridge connects the road from Ndachedwa health centre in Mwachande village-Nthumbwe to Namphungo health Centre which leads to Mulanje district hospital. The bridge is 15 meters long and 4 meters deep and expected to be finished by the end of May 2022.™“`
